Friday, January 02, 2015

Gabe Kapler, the recently hired Director of Player Development for the Dodgers (check out my past story welcoming him to the team, here), is just starting to make his mark on the team. He'll be tasked with assisting our young farmhands as they rise up the ladder with an eye towards Los Angeles, and one of his goals will be to preach the gospel of healthy living and consistent work in the gym.

As evidenced through a twitter exchange on New Year eve, Kapler is clearly ready to get to work. Check out the exchange between Joc Pederson and Gabe Kapler below.

UPDATE: I thought I'd add the following article written by Gabe Kapler on his website in early December. Via Gabe Kapler on his personal website Kaplifestyle, "Working Smart: Speed and Power." Gabe suggest that endurance training makes no sense for Baseball players.

While my mentor was correct that strengthening the heart muscle is good
for us as human beings, he was off with his assessment that the training
makes sense for baseball players. The longest distance we will ever run
on a baseball field is 360 feet, perhaps a few more if we factor in
angles on the rare inside the park home run. As an outfielder, if I’m
manning center field and run from gap to gap, north or south or a combo
of the two, my distance will never be longer than 100 feet in any
direction. If I was a cross country runner training for a 5 mile race,
would I train by sprinting 35 yard blasts? Of course not. So, as
baseball players, why do we seek out training that’s actually breaking
us down?

Endurance training has also been shown to decrease muscle fiber size,
muscle strength, and muscle power, all of which are detrimental to a
baseball athlete (4).

There are three different Yasiel Puig autographed cards in the set, but they only come via a redemption card. Also, the Dodgers #1 pick from the 2014 draft, Grant Holmes, has a redemption card for the Bowman Black card (an on-card autograph). Below is a checklist of all redemption cards:

It has been so cold. So, when I saw the above photo on eBay the other day I certainly could sympathize. It features four Brooklyn Dodgers huddled around a soon-to-be raging fire at their spring home in Daytona Beach. The photo is dated 3/2/1946 and is from International News. Check out the auction here. From the caption written on the reverse:

PITY POOR DODGERS IN BLEAK FLORIDA. Daytona Beach, Fla.......It's all
right for the fortunate people up North. They can warm be shoveling
snow. But the poor Brooklyn Dodgers, who are spring training down in
Daytona Beach have to light a fire to get the chill out of their bones.
Billy Herman is playing fireman here to get a blaze going for Vic
Lombardi, Hal Gregg and Lew Riggs. Cold weather caused postponement of
practice called for yesterday."

"He's a young guy. He was terrific when he pitched last year for
Colorado. From a health standpoint, we feel very good about him being a
regular guy from the start of the season on," Dodgers general manager
Farhan Zaidi said on a conference call on Wednesday. "We're certainly
hoping he stays healthy and takes the ball every fifth day."

Via Bill Shaikinon twitter, Dodger GM Farhan Zaidi said they are not looking to add another frontline starting pitcher.

Zaidi: Bolsinger and Wieland are the extra pitchers to protect against injury to Anderson or others. No plans to pursue more.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 31, 2014

Zaidi: "Our focus on the SP side is going to be depth options." He won't say no Scherzer or Shields, but that's what he means.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 31, 2014

A few days ago, the Los Angeles
Times reported the Dodgers were “close” to signing Tsao to a
minor-league deal and suggested the club had received clearance from MLB
to do so. Both are true. The Dodgers contacted MLB prior to engaging
with Tsao, a baseball source with knowledge of those conversations told
Yahoo Sports. The league looked into the circumstances surrounding
Tsao’s expulsion, found some “ambiguities” in the case, and cleared the
way for the signing, the source said.

This much seems clear,
ambiguities notwithstanding: A guy banned from playing baseball
somewhere else (or, in this case, two somewhere elses) for at least
entertaining the idea of throwing games probably should not be rewarded
with a second chance here. Not with a major league club. Not on a
minor-league deal. Not with MLB’s already very rigid stance on such
activities, not with the flaming contradiction it would appear to be,
not with the precedent it would set. (Rose, for one, might be inspired
to launch another reality TV show, and nobody wants that.)

"Be a nuisance when it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, & disappointed at failure & the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption & bad politics — but never give up." -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas

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“There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey. There’s nothing like it in sports. I don’t care that I’ve never been anywhere else. I don’t care. There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey.” -- A.J. Ellis